The Goodness of Growing Pains

I remember being wrecked at the thought of my daughter going to preschool and spending TWO AND A HALF HOURS with someone else. Yes, really. I couldn’t bear the thought that for 2.5 hours each day, I wouldn’t be there. Someone else would be there to wipe her nose, pour her water, watch her play. Someone else would be there for her to run to when she was hurt or when the toy wouldn’t work. Someone else would share my baby.

Oh, how times have changed. Yet, I am thankful for that memory. I am thankful that I remember how that felt. It helps to move on in life in the now, which will soon be the past.

Life is funny like that.

We always think this is it– that how we feel now is how we will feel tomorrow or the next day, or forever.

Yet life is a constant changing of everything. I mean our bodies literally regenerate new parts every so often (sorry, that blows my mind from a science lesson still 😉

Anyway, yes, we are constantly being made new. We are constantly changing. What was once big is now small, or even non-existent. What was once scary is now familiar. What was once totally unfathomable is now a reality.

Life moves quickly. We learn and we grow and there is beauty in it.

I no longer have a three-year-old that will spend two hours with someone else–oh, the humanity! No, I have a strong and independent almost 15-year-old, who goes to classes, and work, and out with friends, and dances…and basketball practice, and musicals, and the list goes on.

Yet, in that moment as a mommy to a three-year-old, I had to feel the sting of letting go. To understand the beauty of growing.

And I am grateful for the memory, even if it seems ridiculous now. Because it shows just how much growth has taken place.

There is one thing we can’t stop in this life– growing. Physical or otherwise.

And I am grateful that Lord teaches us each day, that life moves and is never the same, and one day…one glorious day, when we are home in heaven, we will never have to feel the sting of letting go, yet will understand the goodness of growing pains.